Collegiate gymnastics heads into week eight as the battle continues for a spot in the national championship meet held in Fort Worth Texas on April 20.
The fight to dethrone the Oklahoma Sooners is still up for grabs as margins are tight and teams across the nation put up big scores.
The Sooners have won the last two titles to accumulate a total of six national championships. This season they have held their own in relation to their reign as they have not faulted from their number one ranking yet this season.
Led by top scorers senior Audrey Davis and junior Jordan Bowers as well as a solid line up on all four events the Sooners have put up four scores of 198+.
So far this season rankings have been determined by the teams average score calculated from all the competitions they have attended in the season. In week eight, the rankings will switch to be based on the teams national qualifying score or NQS.
The NQS will take a teams top six scores of the season, which has to include a minimum of three away scores, and drop the highest and the lowest out of the six, and average the four other scores.
The new rankings based on the NQS will start to set the stage for the national championships and which teams will have the chance to compete for the title.
Throughout early April four separate regional competitions will be held. The top 36 teams, based on their NQS ranking, will compete. The top two teams from each regional will advance to the semifinals and the top four teams at the semifinals will advance to the national finals.
So far, the Sooners have been considered a shoe-in for finals. The California Berkeley Golden Bears and the LSU tigers have also been noted as likely competitors.
The Golden Bears have held the number two spot for most of the season with a strong suit in consistency but unable to break into the 198s. They suffered a 0.9 loss to the Sooners at the Metroplex Challenge quad meet last week and the LSU Tigers were able to surpass them in the rankings after an impressive 198.3 win over the Auburn Tigers.
The LSU Tigers despite some early challenges on the balance beam have proved to be a powerhouse with dynamic performances that score in the 198s and multiple perfect scores by senior Haleigh Bryat and junior Aleah Finnegan.
Although no teams have secured their spot in the finals the fourth spot is traditionally where we see the most opportunity for the team in the top ten to sneak their way in. The Utah Utes are currently ranked 4th followed by the Florida Gators, Kentucky Wildcats, Denver Pioneers, Michigan State Spartans, UCLA Bruins, and the Alabama Tide.
